By Caren Burmeister, Contributing Writer
Northeast Florida Builders Association Executive Director Corey Deal is leaving to lead an Atlanta’s builders group.
“This has been a great learning experience,” Deal said, noting he reports to seven board members that he considers mentors.
“Leaving here is very bittersweet,” he said. “It was a tough decision.”
Deal starts as the executive director at the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association on July 31.
During his four years at NEFBA, membership has grown 23 percent and now includes 1,300 companies.
“Corey created his own unique legacy of leadership, growth and relationship building,” NEFBA President Lee Arsenault said when he announced Deal’s departure.
In an email to members, Arsenault said the organization benefited from Deal’s tenure. He said a search for a new executive director is underway, but did not give a timeline.
Arsenault could not be reached for comment.
Deal worked as NEFBA’s director of governmental affairs from 2006 to 2009. He left the trade association to attend the University of Georgia School of Law and returned in 2013 as its executive director.
During Deal’s term, NEFBA has assembled a hard-working and creative staff, Arsenault said.
Under Deal, NEFBA focused on Builders Care, its nonprofit that provides construction services for the elderly, disabled and low-income people, and its Apprenticeship Program, a four-year program that pays college tuition and salary for workers to learn the construction trades.
Deal also dealt with issues, including a labor shortage in the housing market.
That shortage is critical as contractors across the country and in Jacksonville struggle to find construction workers, let alone experienced ones, to meet the new demand for homes, Deal said.
NEFBA expanded its Apprenticeship Program by adding a position and two coordinators to reach more employers, he said. It now has 138 employers, 90 of which have apprentices.
“That’s a huge part of NEFBA,” Deal said. “We’re one of the few builders’ associations in the country that has an apprenticeship program.”
Deal is from Georgia and his wife’s family lives in Cornelia, a small town about 90 minutes north of Atlanta. The move brings Deal, his wife and their 16-month-old son closer to family.
NEFBA is the fifth-largest homebuilders’ association in the country. Its Atlanta counterpart is 12th.
Deal said he will miss the culture at NEFBA.
“They had it long before I got here and will have it long after I leave,” he said. “I’m hoping I can take a little bit of it to Atlanta.”